To Bottle a Virus
by smartyjonescrzy
Summary: I actually had to write this for a school assignment. I hope you enjoy it! Jeannie sends Tony and Roger's space mission to Neptune, where they catch a rare and deadly virus. The highly suspicious Col. Alfred Bellows may be the only one able to help.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the IDOJ characters. This was an assignment for my sophomore biology class. We had to write a story about a virus from outer space. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it! -smartyjonescrzy**

**To Bottle a Virus**

_Once upon a time, in a mythical place called Cape Kennedy, an astronaut named Tony Nelson went up on a space mission. The missile went up, but something went wrong and they had to bring it down. Captain Nelson landed on an island in the South Pacific where he found a bottle. At least, it looked like a bottle. But it didn't act like a bottle, because in it was a genie. Oh, not your average, everyday genie, but a beautiful genie, who could grant any wish. Captain Nelson was so grateful he set Jeannie free, only she didn't want to be free. You know how it is when you've been cooped up in a bottle for two thousand years. She wanted to have fun, and she wanted to have it with Captain Nelson. So she followed him back to Cocoa Beach, a mythical town in a mythical state called Florida. And there, in his house, the girl in the bottle played spin the astronaut…_

_-_

"But Master!" Jeannie folded her arms and pouted. "You need me up there. I wouldn't think of you going to the moon all alone without your genie to help you. You'll need me!"

"Jeannie, I'm not going to be alone." Major Anthony Nelson gave her a stern look from over the top of his paper. "Roger and Commander Wingate are going with me." Major Roger Healy, another astronaut in the space program, was Tony's best friend, and the only other person in the world who knew about Jeannie.

"Besides, didn't I tell you that you were forbidden from NASA?" Tony set down his paper and picked up his morning coffee cup.

"Yes, but I am not forbidden from space. I don't think Major Healy will mind my tagging along." Jeannie smiled.

"You're forgetting about Commander Wingate." Tony replied. "What am I supposed to do when he sees a blonde in a pink harem costume calling me master in the space capsule? It's out of the question."

Jeannie glowered. With a blink and a nod of her head, she turned the coffee cup in Tony's hands into a toad.

Tony watched what once was his breakfast leap out of his hands and disappear into the bushes surrounding their outdoor patio. He gave Jeannie a warning look, but before she could say anything, the front door slammed and Roger Healy joined them on the deck.

"Hi Tony, Hi Jeannie." He greeted them, taking a seat. "You think we got time for breakfast before heading over to NASA this morning? That moon capsule's going up today, you know."

_"Ontday entionmay atthay rounday Eanniejay."_ Tony murmured. "And you better eat fast before your breakfast gets away from you."

"Oh," Roger nodded. He turned to Jeannie. "Say, Jeannie. You haven't said a word since I came here. Your master treating you bad?" Roger was always trying to get Jeannie away from Tony. Where Tony saw the immense responsibility it took to hide Jeannie from his superior officer, Colonel Alfred Bellows, Roger only saw yachts and money and cottages and girls that could all be his if he were Jeannie's master.

"No." Jeannie sighed loudly. "It is only that he will not let me help my master. Again."

"Huh? What makes you say that?"

"She wants to come on the moon orbit," Tony muttered crossly. Sometimes, he had to spell it out clearly before Roger got something.

"Oh, please, do let me go, Master!" Jeannie pleaded. "I have never been to the moon before. And I do not want to leave you for two whole weeks. What will I do?"

"Watch television." Tony replied. Though there was no way he was going to let Jeannie tag along on the mission, he admired her for her fierce loyalty to him. It was a loyalty that went above and beyond the call of duty. After all, why else would she have stayed with him all these years? But sometimes, their "purely platonic" relationship overstepped the boundaries of friendship. After all, there were times when even Tony found himself thinking about all that she did for him, her overwhelming beauty, her radiant smile…

_Cool it Tony, _he'd had to remind himself. _You're an astronaut and she's a genie. It would never work out. _All the same, he found it became increasingly harder to resist her simple charms the longer she was with him.

"Oh, but Master! I will get so lonely! And the moon is too dangerous for you to go alone!" Jeannie crossed her arms and sat back in her seat.

"Yeah, Master, don't be such a meanie!" Roger added.

Tony frowned at his best friend. "Whose side are you on, anyway?" He turned back to Jeannie. "Now, Jeannie, enough said. I want you to go back to your bottle right now and that's an order!"

"Ohhh…" Jeannie stood up, obviously very angry. "As you wish, Master."

She slowly started making her way inside when a smile crossed her face. She turned back to the patio and nodded. Tony and Roger yelped at the onslaught of toads leaping around the porch while Jeannie, laughing, turned herself into a vertical stream of pink smoke.

-

_My Master is so stubborn… _Jeannie thought sadly as she held up her purple bottle. _He's always wanting to do everything himself._

She glanced idly over at the chair closest to the door and caught sight of his blue air force jacket hanging over the back. How easy it would be to slip in his pocket and go with him anyway! She giggled. It would serve him right, too! He never let her do anything for him.

Her mind made up, she set her bottle back on the table and blinked herself into his pocket. Lifting up the heavy flap, she peered out at the massive living room. Majors Nelson and Healy had just reentered it, making their way over toward the door. She quickly dropped the flap and burrowed deep inside the pocket.

Tony picked up Jeannie's bottle, oblivious to the fact that she wasn't in it. "You in there, Jeannie?"

Realizing he expected a reply, Jeannie quickly blinked her voice to come out of the bottle. "Yes, Master," floated her tinny, far-off voice from inside the bottle.

"Good." Tony quickly picked up the bottle's cork and shoved it in place. "Sorry, Jeannie. I hate to do it to you, but I can't have you tagging along with me. You know how important this mission is?"

"Don't look now but Dr. Bellows is coming up the walk," Roger informed his friend. "If I were you, I'd cut the goodbye short. Remember what happened when he caught you talking to the vacuum cleaner?"

Tony nodded. Dr. Bellows had seen Tony exhibit a lot of exceedingly odd behavior ever since he had picked up Jeannie on the beach. A lot of things, in fact, that would have been enough to have Tony kicked out of the space program. Dr. Bellows had seen elephants in Tony's bedroom and apple trees and sailboats in his living room. He'd seen it snow only over Tony's house in the middle of July. He'd seen Tony's car driving itself, not to mention the countless times he had caught Tony carrying on a conversation with air, walls, vacuum cleaners, and safes. It had become a sort of obsession with NASA's head psychiatrist to figure out just what was so odd about Major Nelson. But to date, he'd never had any proof of any of the bizarre things he'd witnessed ever happening.

"Goodbye, Jeannie. See you in two weeks," Tony murmured quickly before hastily setting down the bottle. He turned and smiled just as Dr. Bellows appeared in the doorway. "Good morning, Dr. Bellows. We were just on our way to NASA."

"Excuse me, Major Nelson. I'm running a little late. Amanda detained me. She was doing some yard work when an army of toads suddenly descended upon her. Do you have any idea of what exactly is going on here?" Amanda Bellows, a forceful and extremely nosy woman, was Dr. Bellows' wife.

"Toads? No sir, I haven't the slightest idea." It had become very easy for Tony to tell a straightfaced lie to Dr. Bellows. Anything was better than the truth, he figured. If Dr. Bellows ever found out his little secret, he'd be heading straight for a padded cell.

"Why would you think Tony had something to do with a bunch of toads?" Roger laughed uneasily.

"Because I've come to know that if anything strange happens, Major Nelson's involved in it somehow." Dr. Bellows answered. "Now, we'd better go. The capsule lifts off in a few hours, you know."

Bellows and Roger had turned their backs to leave when Tony hurriedly picked up Jeannie's bottle. "Now, Jeannie. I want you to be a good girl and stay in your bottle, you hear?" He whispered.

"Major Nelson, are you coming or aren't you?"

"I am, sir!" Tony called, setting down the bottle and pulling on his jacket as he strode out the door.

From inside his pocket, Jeannie laughed. Her master was in for a big surprise!


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Tony checked the switchboard inside the space capsule. "Conditions normal. The flight's going exactly as planned. Anything happening starboard side, Roge?"

In the small, cramped space, Commander Wingate separated Major Nelson from Major Healy, who were operating and monitoring their respective sides of the craft. There wasn't much room for movement. At least it wouldn't be long until they reached the moon.

Jeannie, who'd transferred herself to the inside of her master's space suit, decided to make her presence known. She crawled up inside his helmet and waved up at his face. "Hello, Master!"

"Jeannie…Jeannie!" Tony glanced around furtively to make sure Commander Wingate hadn't overheard. He turned to the tiny genie in his helmet, whispering urgently. "Jeannie, what are you doing here?"

"I told you I wanted to come along. You did not listen." Jeannie shrugged helplessly.

"You're in big trouble, young lady, as soon as we get home. Now I want you to get out of here right now."

"But Master…"

"I said, right now!"

"If that is what you wish." Jeannie blinked and reappeared full size in Tony's lap.

"Jeannie!" Roger exclaimed in surprise.

Commander Wingate's eyes widened. "Major, I must be having hallucinations. For some reason, I'm seeing a…a girl in a pink harem costume in your lap!"

Tony laughed. "Isn't that silly?" He turned to Jeannie, nodding at the Commander. "Could you, ah…?"

"Certainly, Master." Jeannie blinked again, making Commander Wingate fall back against the seat in a deep slumber.

"That's not what I had in mind," Tony muttered crossly. "Now, go home!"

"But Master, I have come all this way. Might I stay with you?" Jeannie pleaded.

"It's out of the question, now, go home!"

"But Master, I did not come just to be with you. I thought that we might go visit the planet Neptune. After all, that is the place where all genies are thought to have come from. It is stated in the Great Djin." Jeannie smiled.

"Well, Jeannie. You picked the wrong flight. We're going to the moon." Tony replied.

"Not anymore," Jeannie grinned. With another blink, she had redirected the capsule's course. They were indeed heading straight for the planet Neptune.

-

"Neptune?! What are they doing going to Neptune?!" General Schaffer roared indignantly back in the control room at Cape Kennedy.

"I didn't believe it myself, sir. But look at the tracker for yourself. They've seemingly gone completely off course." Dr. Bellows gestured to the bleeping map on the wall.

"Fix it, Colonel. Immediately. We've sunk too much money in this program to have it fouled up at this point." General Schaffer scowled.

"Of course, General. We'll send them a dispatch to redirect course immediately."

As the general walked away, Dr. Bellows looked again at the map and shook his head. "I knew something weird was bound to happen."

-

"Jeannie, are you crazy?! What's Dr. Bellows going to think? We can never make it to Neptune! It's millions of lightyears away!" Tony exclaimed.

"Oh, boy…oh, boy…" Roger moaned.

"You're forgetting I am a genie, Master. I will get us there in no time at all." Jeannie blinked, speeding the space craft up to unfathomable velocities. Tony and Roger clung to their seats, yelling for dear life. Commander Wingate was still out cold.

In no more than a few minutes, though it seemed like a lifetime to Tony, Jeannie blinked for the craft to slow down to its normal speed. Tony and Roger jolted forward at the sudden decrease in speed, and looked out their windows. Sure enough, the blue gaseous planet was directly below them.

"Jeannie, this is crazy! No man has ever been to Neptune before!" Tony cried, awed and displeased at the same time by what Jeannie had done.

"Would you like to go out and look at it, Master?" Jeannie asked, her eyes lighting up eagerly.

Tony shrugged. "Might as well, since we're here."

"Oh, Master!" Jeannie cried happily. With another blink, she and her master were outside the craft, hovering above Neptune.

Jeannie inhaled the fumes happily. "Oh, yes. This material is a very primitive form of our smoke, and the glow holds some of the properties that make up our powers. Is this not exciting, Master?"

"Yes, Jeannie." Tony laughed. There were some times when it was better to humor her than argue. This was one of those times.

"Major Nelson, Major Nelson, are you there?" Dr. Bellows' voice sounded over the control inside the capsule. Roger jumped with a start.

"Oh, Dr. Bellows! How are you, sir?"

"Major Healy, I wish to speak to Major Nelson, if you please."

"Oh, sorry, sir. He's not here right now. Can I take a message?" Roger leaned back easily against Commander Wingate. Now that Tony and Jeannie were out, there was a bit more breathing room in the capsule.

"Major Healy, might I ask just _why _Major Nelson's not there?"

"Oh, he's out exploring Neptune. It's Genie Heritage Month, didn't you know? Over and out, sir." Roger flipped a switch on the panel that cut off his connection with Dr. Bellows.

Dr. Bellows slowly sat back in his seat, staring at his headset incredulously. "The General is never going to believe this one," he murmured.

-

"All right, Jeannie. You've had your fun. Now blink us back to the moon this instant." Tony said sternly. He and Jeannie had returned to the capsule from their excursion and he was more than anxious to be on the planned flight course than before.

"As you wish, Master." Jeannie blinked, and the capsule was sent soaring back through space.

When it finally came to another stop, they weren't back at the moon at all. "Jeannie, this is Mercury!" Tony exclaimed.

"Is this where your cousins came from or something?" Roger asked, exasperated.

"I am sorry, Master. I didn't mean to. I must have overshot it. I will try again." Jeannie sniffed and blinked again. This time, they ended up over Mars.

"Jeannie, cut it out!" Tony exclaimed.

"I am not doing it on purpose, Master!" Jeannie cried. "My powers are malfunctioning!" As soon as she said it, she sneezed.

"Well, please, get us back as best you can. The whole space program is depending on it." Tony tugged at his collar. Personally, he felt a little warm himself.

"I will try, Master." Jeannie folded her arms, struggling to concentrate. Slowly, she blinked and nodded. The capsule ended up over Earth.

"Oh, I am sorry, Master." Jeannie moaned sadly. "I don't know what is wrong with me! Should I try again?"

"No!" Tony cried. "This is good enough. We'll take it from here."

Jeannie shrugged. "If you say so, Master."

-

"Like I said, General, Major Nelson is out exploring the planet Neptune. I didn't believe it myself when Major Healy came over the radio." Dr. Bellows insisted, leading General Schaffer over to one of the controls. He quickly picked up the headset and switched it on. "Major Healy, Major Healy, can you hear me?"

"Dr. Bellows?" It was Tony's voice that answered.

"Major Nelson! I thought you were out looking at Neptune." Dr. Bellows said incredulously.

"I'm sorry, sir. We seem to be running a bit behind schedule. However, we plan to still arrive on the moon as planned." Tony's last statement was followed by a cough.

"But I thought…" Dr. Bellows' voice trailed off as he looked at the radar. The capsule was back on its original course.

General Schaffer frowned down at Dr. Bellows. "Well, Colonel, I'm waiting."

"But General, I swear not two minutes ago Major Nelson was outside the capsule above Neptune!" Dr. Bellows exclaimed.

"Doctor, this isn't the first time I've said this, but maybe you would do well to have _your_ head examined." Schaffer gruffly replied.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter3**

"Jeannie, you don't look too well." Tony glanced worriedly over at Jeannie. "I think staying out in those fumes has given you some sort of bug." He turned to Roger. "Is it just me, or is it hot in here?"

"Come to think of it, I am a little warm." Roger replied.

"It's not a bug, Master. I know what I have." Jeannie sneezed. "And I believe you have given it to Major Healy. It is a virus."

"A virus?" Tony yelped.

Jeannie nodded. "Haji Syndrome. That's what Mama always called it back home in Baghdad." Haji, who had dropped in on Jeannie on more than one occasion, was the ruler of all the genies.

"Well, what does it do?" Tony asked worriedly.

"It messes up a genie's powers, eventually taking them away altogether. And then the genie just disappears." Jeannie shrugged sadly.

"What happens if people get it?" Roger asked, taking off his helmet to scratch his face.

"Well, mortals get those blue spots like you have. That's the most obvious symptom. Pretty soon, you'll be able to read other people's minds, followed quickly by dementia and eventual death. That's what the Genie Book of Medicine says." Jeannie replied.

"Jeannie, you've got to do something! Can't you cure us? Or know somebody who does?" Tony asked anxiously.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot. My powers are messed up as it is." Jeannie said hopelessly.

"We can't just sit and do nothing!" Tony exclaimed. "Listen, Jeannie. Do you think you can blink yourself back home to Cocoa Beach?"

Jeannie thought about it for a minute. "I think so."

"Good. Then this is what I want you to do. Go home and go to NASA. Seek out Dr. Bellows. Have him try to find you a cure. Then, once you're better, you can come back up here and help us."

"But I thought I was forbidden…"

"You're not, now. Just don't tell him you're a genie. And have him hurry!" Tony coughed.

"All right, Master." She turned to Commander Wingate. "You'd better watch him. It looks like he's coming down with it, too." With that, she blinked herself home.

Roger looked at Tony and shook his head.

Tony frowned. "I know what you're thinking, so just be quiet!"

-

Jeannie blinked herself into a normal outfit back at NASA and hurriedly sought out Dr. Bellows. She really would have to work fast. It looked as if her left foot was fading already.

"Dr. Bellows! You must help me!" She cried, running into him.

"Miss, what seems to be the problem? Please step into my office." Dr. Bellows gestured inside the examination room and closed the door. "You don't appear sick. What are your symptoms?"

"Oh, I am very sick." Jeannie replied worriedly. "I don't think you know about this disease yet. You see, I am disappearing."

"I see." Dr. Bellows regarded her skeptically. "And your name, Miss…"

"Jeannie."

"Miss Jeannie…"

"Jeannie."

"Miss Jeannie Jeannie." Dr. Bellows frowned. "Odd name. However, I don't think you're very sick. It's a good think you came to me. I am a psychiatrist. Now, why don't you tell me when you first thought you were disappearing?"

_He doesn't think I'm sick! This won't work at all! _Jeannie thought dismally. "Look, Dr. Bellows! A mouse!" She pointed to the wall over his shoulder.

"Where?" He turned around, leaving time enough for Jeannie to blink herself some spots. Unfortunately, they ended up not only on her, but on the entire room.

"I don't see a thing…" Dr. Bellows' voice trailed off. "Oh, good heavens. You really are sick!" He quickly strode over to her, looking in awe at the spots.

"Please don't touch them! It's highly contagious!" Jeannie exclaimed. "And I need you to cure my master! I mean, me."

"I see. Please, come along to sick bay. We'll take some blood samples and see what is going on with you." Dr. Bellows waved her along down the corridor before turning back to the room. He opened his mouth at the sight of all the spots, but stopped and shook his head. General Schaffer would never believe him.

-

"Gosh, I hate to wake Commander Wingate up from his dream," Roger said as he looked at him.

"I know," Tony replied. Commander Wingate was dreaming about a bunch of pink unicorns parading about him on the middle of the moon.

Reading their minds, Wingate murmured, "I'm not strange," before slipping into his reverie once again.

"I hope this doesn't get any worse." Roger muttered. "I hope Jeannie's feeling better by now."

"Huh? Oh yes, Jeannie." Tony replied absently. He was starting to feel like he wasn't all there already.

-

Jeannie lay in bed, not daring to pull back the sheets. If she did, Dr. Bellows would see that she no longer had any feet. _Please hurry, Doctor, _she thought, _I cannot help you, my powers are all but gone. My poor Master, deathly sick all the way up in space…_

She opened her eyes as she heard a blink and a flash of green smoke. From it stepped a sinister brunette dressed in a green harem costume; Jeannie's evil twin sister.

"Darling, I came as soon as I heard. It looks like you're not going to be with us much longer." She smiled insincerely.

"Sister, I'm so glad you have come." Jeannie replied weakly. "You know I have Haji Syndrome. Mother still has the antidote, doesn't she?"

"I suppose. I didn't really think to ask her." Jeannie's sister studied her nails nonchalantly.

"Sister, aren't you going to help cure me?" She asked.

"No." Jeannie II smiled. "I came to say goodbye. With you out of the way, your darling master will be mine for the taking." Jeannie II was always scheming to try to get Tony away from Jeannie. She loved him just as ardently as Jeannie did, only she wasn't as nice as her sister. She wanted him as her own personal pet.

"You'll never have my master!" Jeannie cried hotly.

"Now, sister, don't get so riled up. You'll disappear faster." Jeannie II smirked nastily. She blinked, causing Dr. Bellows, who was out in the hall, to spill coffee all over his test results.

"Sister, please stop!" Jeannie moaned. "My master has it, too. He will die if Dr. Bellows does not help me."

"Is he, now? Well, I wouldn't want that." Jeannie II thought about it for a minute. She shrugged. "Now that helping you is inevitable, I suppose I shall just have to leave."

"Can't you tell Mother to come help me?" Jeannie implored.

Jeannie II laughed. "Darling, I said I wasn't going to hinder. I'm certainly not going to help you. Heavens, if I did that, what would the world be coming to?" With that, she disappeared as quickly as she'd come.

Jeannie sighed. "Oh, Mother, please come help me!"


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"This isn't so much fun anymore." Roger had tired of reading Wingate's thoughts. The unicorns had only changed colors in the commander's fantasy, from pink to yellow to blue. Presently, they were purple. "I sure hope Jeannie gets better fast."

"Yes, mother."

"Mother? Tony, this is your buddy Roger!" Major Healy pointed to himself, then took a good look at his friend. Tony definitely wasn't looking too good.

"Sorry, mother. Where am I?" Tony asked.

"You're in a capsule on its way to the moon and we wouldn't have been in this mess if you'd never picked up that bottle with Jeannie in it on the beach when you crashed all those years ago!" Roger replied crossly.

"Jeannie…where's Jeannie?" Tony asked, closing his eyes. "Jeannie!" He cried.

"Quiet! You'll wake Commander Wingate up!" Roger scratched one of his blue spots and looked worriedly over at the commander. He knew it was only a matter of time before he too would be as far gone as his friend. Then they'd _really_ be in trouble. "Especially since Sleeping Beauty doesn't look like waking up anytime soon," he muttered.

-

Unknown to Jeannie, her mother had decided to pay a visit to NASA. She didn't know about her daughter's illness. She had come on an entirely different tack. The last time she had visited her daughter, she had fallen in love with Dr. Bellows. Just as her daughters were persistent in their pursuit of Tony Nelson, she was equally adamant in her infatuation with the old doctor.

"I just don't understand it," Dr. Bellows murmured, pondering over his coffee-stained reports. "This is simply astounding. I've never seen anything like this in my twenty one years as a doctor."

The reports indicated a completely new virus, one with unbelievable properties. It attacked the host cell ruthlessly, taking over and replicating at an alarming rate. It seemed to hold some sort of ability to trigger senility in its victims, though the young girl in his care did not show any signs of delirium. Strangely enough, she seemed to be fading!

"How will I ever go about treating it?" He pondered aloud. "This virus seems well ahead of modern medicine." He sat up abruptly. "I may get the Nobel Prize for this discovery!"

Jeannie's mother, who had been watching him from behind a screen, smiled and blinked the prize on his desk.

Looking at it incredulously, Dr. Bellows slowly picked it up. "The Nobel Prize…'awarded to Alfred Bellows'?" He read from the plaque slowly. He set it down. "Now I _must_ be seeing things!"

Jeannie's mother laughed. Before Dr. Bellows looked up, she blinked the two of them back to her home in Baghdad.

"Look here, what's the meaning of this?" Dr. Bellows looked up at the cage that trapped him. "Where am I?"

"Home with me," Jeannie's mother replied, dancing happily about outside his cage.

"My name is Colonel Alfred Bellows and I'm on detached duty from NASA. I demand my release immediately!" Dr. Bellows cried.

"Nothing doing, Colonel." Jeannie's mother smiled. "I'm going to make you a sultan!"

-

"Alfred? Where are you?" Amanda Bellows roamed the base, searching for the lost doctor. She stopped a staff sergeant in the hall. "Excuse me, have you seen my husband?"

The sergeant glanced at her security badge before nodding. "Last I saw him, he was going over some reports in his office, Mrs. Bellows."

"But I already checked his office and he wasn't there!" Amanda insisted. "And I need his help in picking out our new wallpaper." She held up some samples she'd brought along.

"Oh, I don't think Dr. Bellows will want to be bothered with that right now," the sergeant replied. "From what I've heard, he's just discovered a new virus. You might want to check mission control. He's also monitoring the moon flight right now."

"Thank you," Mrs. Bellows replied, heading for the control room.

"You really aren't going to seek him out just for his opinion on wallpaper?"

Mrs. Bellows stopped. "Sergeant, don't forget that I can tell you what to do. I am a Colonel's wife."

-

Who are you? I demand my release immediately!" Dr. Bellows exclaimed haughtily. "I don't want to be a sultan!"

Jeannie's mother smiled. "But I will give you anything you want. Wouldn't you like that?"

"Ma'am, I am a married man! Now, please, let me out! There is a girl very ill back at the base that's depending on me!" Bellows cried. "I have to find a cure!"

"Cure? What cure?" Jeannie's mother stopped short.

"The one for the virus Miss Jeannie has." Dr. Bellows stopped. "At least, I think that's her name."

"Jeannie?" Jeannie's mother looked interested. "What does she look like?"

"I don't know…she's blonde, really rather pretty for a young girl. And she has a lot of blue spots. Now, I must go and try to do something for her directly!"

"Jeannie!" Her mother cried. "She has Haji Syndrome! Oh, my poor girl! I knew she never should have gotten involved with that astronaut!"

"What on _earth_ are you talking about?" Dr. Bellows looked at her in confusion.

Jeannie's mother held up a finger. "Just one minute, doctor. I'll give you what you need." She turned around, beginning some sort of Arabic chant. She pulled some spices and herbs from her cluttered shelves, combining them in a cup. Within a few minutes, she had concocted the antidote.

"Here is what you desire. Please give it to Jeannie with my best regards." Jeannie's mother handed him the vial.

"Who shall I say sends them?" Bellows asked, studying the vial.

"Her mother."

Dr. Bellows collapsed on the floor in a dead faint.

-

"Alfred? Goodness, this is getting ridiculous!" Mrs. Bellows exclaimed, wandering around mission control. Her husband wasn't here, either. She sat down at one of the controls and spoke into the headset. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

The screen in front of her flickered before she could see a camera image of the interior of the space capsule.

"Mrs. Bellows! Mrs. Bellows, thank goodness! You've got to help us!" Roger's face appeared on the screen.

Mrs. Bellows screamed. "You're blue!"

"About that…Mrs. Bellows?"

Amanda had already fled the room.

-

Dr. Bellows woke up in his office, still holding the vial. He shook his head. What a vivid and utterly strange dream! He stood up and glanced at the vial in his hand. How did that get there? He shrugged. He had nothing to lose by trying it on his sick patient.

"Miss Jeannie? Are you all right?" He entered her room and stopped short. "Good heavens!"

By this point, Jeannie's whole lower body was completely gone, and the rest of her was fading quickly.

"Dr. Bellows! You have the antidote! Oh, I'm so glad you came!" Jeannie smiled weakly.

"Now, I'm not going to promise anything, but we'll see if this does anything for you." Dr. Bellows emptied some of the strange potion into a syringe and struggled to find her fading arm before finally injecting it.

All of a sudden, Jeannie's color returned. The rest of her body reappeared. She jumped up happily and hugged the doctor. "Oh, thank you, Doctor! You have saved me _and_ my master!"

Before Dr. Bellows could react, she took the vial from his hand and smiled. "If you don't mind, I will take this." She got up and strolled out of the room. Once outside the door, she blinked herself into the capsule.

Dr. Bellows stared at the door before shaking his head. "I think I'll go lie down…this has been a very strange day…" He murmured.

"Alfred! Thank heavens I found you!" Amanda Bellows exclaimed, running into the room. "I just saw the most terrible thing!"

"Not as terrible as what I have seen!" Bellows cried.

"Blue spots!" She shouted.

"Yes, exactly!" Dr. Bellows nodded in agreement.

"We must tell General Schaffer!"

"Tell General Schaffer what?" The general stood in the doorway, looking at them expectantly.

Dr. Bellows jumped to his feet. "General, there was a girl…"

"Major Healy…"

"Blue spots all over her and in the room, I'd never seen anything like it…"

"They were all over his face, it was awful…"

"Hold it, now. I'm taking you both to a doctor and it's going to be all right." General Schaffer took them both by the arm and escorted them away. "Now, how long have you two been seeing blue spots, exactly?"


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter5**

A few days later, Tony was sitting in his office when Jeannie blinked herself in. He quickly stood. "Jeannie, what are you thinking? What if Doctor Bellows comes in and finds you here?"

"I am sorry, Master. I just wanted to apologize again for causing so much trouble. I never should have made you go to Neptune." Jeannie sighed sadly. After being cured by the antidote, she had quickly returned to space and cured the three astronauts. She had remained at home while they finished their mission. Though two weeks had passed, she still felt remorse over causing the whole mess.

"It's all right, Jeannie, okay? You've already apologized enough. Now just forget about it." Tony smiled. "Actually, I have to say, before I got sick, getting to see Neptune was pretty fun."

Jeannie jumped up. "Oh, did you like it, Master? I can show you some more excellent things! We can collect rocks on Pluto, and go skating on Jupiter's rings and…"

Tony plugged his ears. Why did he have to open his big mouth?

-

"Your medical reports turned out fine. That will be all, gentlemen." Dr. Bellows sat at his desk as Major Healy and Major Nelson stood before him. After his hysterics had subsided and he'd had a good night's rest, Dr. Bellows was content to dismiss the whole incident as a horrible nightmare. He'd have to be more careful the next time he ate Amanda's rump roast. "You're both in top physical condition and appear to have suffered no adverse effects from the flight."

"Thank you, sir." Tony turned to go. Roger lagged behind.

"Oh, Dr. Bellows…you might want to ask Commander Wingate about his dreams sometime. They're really interesting."

"We won't be bothering you," Tony turned again toward the door. "Oh, and congratulations on your award." He called over his shoulder.

Dr. Bellows looked down at his desk to see the Nobel Prize plaque still sitting on top of his files. He slowly moved over to his couch and laid down. "I was a normal little boy," he murmured to himself, "My father didn't have a lot of money, but that didn't affect us much. I grew up believing I was a normal person. I really didn't notice anything strange with me until Major Nelson joined the space program…"

Peering out from Bellows' pencil cup, Jeannie laughed delightedly.

**THE END**


End file.
